A spectacular hostage-taking kept Lower Saxony in suspense for two days from May 21, 1995:Two prisoners escaped from Celle's high-security prison and have a guard in their power.
It is a Sunday morning when Peter S. and Günther F. are in the prison library. The two are in Celle, in the maximum security prison for criminals. On this Sunday, May 21, 1995, the inmates overpowered a guard in the library. They know exactly what they want:Peter S. and Günther F. are demanding a cell phone, a fast car and 200,000 German marks. If the police stormed the jail, they would kill the jailer.
Second hostage-taking by Peter S.
The inmates' threats are taken very seriously. Because eleven years earlier, Peter S. had fled before, had also taken a hostage and threatened them with a homemade hand grenade. The police therefore assume that the two have self-made weapons, which later turns out to be the correct assumption. A spectacular escape follows.
TV interviews during the escape
The hostage-takers get the fast car:With a silver-gray Porsche, 38-year-old Peter S. and 37-year-old Günther F. rush off the grounds of the correctional facility (JVA) - under the eyes of numerous onlookers and journalists who are with cameras and cameras have gathered in prison. The escapees seem to like the attention:On their journey across Lower Saxony, they call a television station several times. There are also phone calls to the police, but the negotiations do not seem to lead to any result - at least S. and F. do not want to give up.
Aimless escape ends at a traffic light in Osnabrück
The escapees soon part with their sports car. They park the Porsche on Autobahn 2 in Bad Eilsen in the district of Schaumburg and steal a VW Golf. The wild, apparently aimless journey through the country continues. It ends two days after the escape in Osnabrück:On May 23, the Golf stops at a red traffic light in the city center. The police strike in a flash:special forces ram the Gulf from two sides, there is no escape. The 38-year-old correctional officer is released.
Captains had reached "chaotic phase"
A happy ending without bloodshed - but apparently it could have easily been different. After the arrest, the police said the hostage-takers had entered a "chaotic phase". The life of the hostage was acutely endangered. The escapees were apparently desperate and possibly ready for anything. Incidentally, the two of them do not escape again after being arrested again.
Government adopts new security concept
After the danger has passed, the discussions break out. Because the hostage-taking in Celle prison in 1995 was the third in just eleven years. The state government then decides on a new security concept for the whole of Lower Saxony. Four prisons will receive so-called security stations with 46 solitary confinement cells.
1996:Violent kidnapping - again in Celle
Despite the debates and the revised concept, a prisoner in Celle took another hostage just under a year later. And this time there is no happy ending. It is a social worker whom the perpetrator takes into his power in February 1996. The prisoner rapes his victim. The head of the prison voluntarily surrenders to the man in exchange for her employee - and is also raped by him. The affected Salinenmoor department has been closed since 2014.
After 1995:outbreaks with tragic consequences
Ever since the 1990s, work has continued on safety technology. According to the Ministry of Justice, the country now has "high-security institutions with the most modern security standards". However, there have been outbreaks in Lower Saxony, some with tragic outcomes:in 2014, for example, Reinhard R., who was in preventive detention, did not return to Lingen JVA (Emsland district) from an exit. On his escape he is said to have raped a 13-year-old girl. In particular, people who have escaped preventive detention have repeatedly gotten the state government into trouble. On October 2, 2014, for example, a person in preventive detention from the JVA Rosdorf was able to go into hiding during a day off at the unity festival at the Maschsee in Hanover. At the beginning of 2016, another person in preventive detention - also from JVA Rosdorf - escaped through a toilet window when his sister was accompanied to a visit. Both men were later arrested. As a result, the state government reduced the accompanied trips for those in preventive detention from twelve to four trips per year.